How recent grads can navigate the job market | Dallas Key | TEDxAustinCollege

0:02 [Music] [Applause] what is the best day of the week to submit a job application is it first thing Monday morning to give your potential employer a subtle subconscious hint that you'll show up for work on time for your very first day what about Friday if a mass of applications is coming in over the course of the weekend yours will be at the top of that pile maybe you split the difference in those two approaches go for Wednesday and have the eyes of the recruiter all to yourself in the middle of the week if you've ever asked yourself this question or something similar before you pressed sub submit application no need to worry I have an answer for you today none of

0:49 those is right on the flip side none of those is exactly wrong either see it varies from job to job so what is very successful f for one company may get you absolutely nowhere for the next but that question in and of itself is the perfect description of the disconnect that exists between job Seekers and talent acquisition professionals today the vast majority of advice and focus is given to the resume and oftentimes that's at expense of the rest of the process the more accurate way of looking at that Pro process think of it this way the act of applying

1:35 interviewing and hopefully securing a job is effectively you telling your work-focused autobiography this is what you've done with your previous company this is what you've learned from those experiences and this is how you'll be able to apply them to your potential future employer and if you don't mind me blabbering the book metaphor a little bit I received far too many questions about chapter one when in reality there is an entire book that's left to be written and read my name is Dallas key and I've been in Talent acquisition for over a decade now I've recruited for countless different types of positions from SE Suite level Executives to part-time entry-level internships for S&P 500

2:20 companies to Virtual startups I've interacted with candidates at every different stage in every every different setting the thrill of getting to know someone of a different culture or a different background is something that I learned and really began to appreciate during my time here at Austin College so it's no surprise I ended up in Talent acquisition in fact getting to know somebody new every single day is probably my favorite part of the job and unsurprisingly that passion is shared by most recruiters I'm always asked for different pieces of advice on ways to stand out how to get hired but I've noticed a Common Thread in all of these questions in recent years they're all focused on the algorithm

3:08 ways to defeat or game the system in one way or another but the reality is there's no singular way on how to get a job in today's market it varies from recruiter to recruiter from hiring manager to hiring manager just as I said previously but this shift in Focus has really started instead of making those rums stand out it makes them blend together and so it makes it significantly more difficult for recruitment professionals to get to know the true authent authentic person on the other side of that application and that's created a real bitterness amongst Talent acquisition professionals towards this homogeneization of resumés now it's difficult to blame either party for this it's a bit of a chicken in the egg scenario but the end

3:56 result is the same candidates have gone from competing with each other for jobs to competing with Talent acquisition professionals to Simply prove their viability for the role that makes candidates even more frustrated with the process think of the volume of jobs they have to apply to the volume of fellow applicants the lack of transparency in the process and so in turn they start to rely more and more on those tips and tricks that they've heard will help them stand out but it's actually exactly the opposite those tips and tricks hurt them keep in mind recruitment professionals don't exactly enjoy those things so they've been able to set up secure safeguards to make sure that unqualified candidates can't game

4:42 the system in the way we talked about earlier that volume that applicants struggle with that's also just as much of an obstacle to recruiters who have to ensure quality higher all the while having to sift through that volume of applicants and you can only judge based on a two-page resume both sides are equally frustrated understandably so but those frustrations are just sides of the same coin two sides of the same coin now once you've identified this Dynamic you can start to work around it not all advice is bad advice it's just that most the advice that you see today is incredibly Limited in scope again it's focused on the resume in reality it

5:27 ignores much of these other steps such as interviews for some roles you have further assessments or even panels that you have to go through and that advice that you hear that isn't exactly original in reality there's only so much that you can do with a set of bullet points on a maximum of two pages so again I don't intend to minimize the importance of a resume but simply point out that it's only part of your presentation as an applicant the goal with your resume is to get whoever is on the other side to truly know you as a candidate right go beyond the sort of standard process that you see and those basic tips and tricks that you have it's easier for hiring

6:13 teams to understand if they empathize with you tell a story as much as you can and along the way keep in mind that somebody has to be able to see themselves working with you on a day-to-day basis if they want to hire you in the first place now once you've solidified your resume I think we can be into or we can begin to get into a piece of advice that I think is actually pretty true it's not what you know it's who you know now I know that isn't exactly a positive message probably your your mind may have gone to thoughts of nepotism or people skirting the system if they aren't qualified it's much more than that so don't let that dishearten you it is about getting to know somebody beyond

7:01 your resume most candidates think that their experience speaks for itself but again two pages can only say so much so how can you tell more of your story to make sure that someone on the other side of that computer truly understands you well another piece of advice that is kind of making the rounds now is that cover letters are dead for some companies that's very true but I've seen multiple times the inclusion of a cover letter be the distinguishing Factor that helped a hiring manager decide between two equally qualified candidates things like Career Fairs networking events or professional social media like LinkedIn these are all ways that you can stand out beyond the standard application

7:48 mechanism now don't get me wrong I do get the same one or two questions at every career fair and that happens for the the entirety of the 3 or 4 hours and a copied and pasted LinkedIn message or a form cover letter isn't going to stand out in one way or another but if you take the time to research a company and pre-prepare questions before you go to a career faar or if you look through someone's LinkedIn and you find a commonality and you use that as the basis for your message those things truly do stand out to recruiters if you give somebody specific Focus they are significantly more likely to return that Focus to you and that initial connection that you set up with either the recruiter or the hiring team that can be

8:33 the basis or the groundwork for the next steps moving forward now I know that's easier said than done but if you follow that connection focused framework that can help lay the groundwork to truly Stand Out amongst other applicants and that's the goal for those of you that are earlier in your career you may find that to be particularly intimidating and I get it you may feel as though you don't have as much to connect about well well that's where you're wrong the next step is to focus on the job itself now there's no way to tell what the preferences are that I mentioned earlier of the recruiter or the hiring team so how can you find out what they're looking for well it's pretty straightforward and this is the most common question that I get at Career

9:19 Fairs what are you looking for in this type of role or that type of role it sounds very simple there's a reason I get it really often and what hiring teams would tell you as the answer to that question is we've already told you it's in the job posting there's a reason we wrote it that way right so use that job posting as your North Star when you're trying to frame your again presentation as a candidate use that as your guide when you when you think about your experience frame it in the terms that they have you'll likely see a list of responsibilities when have you taken that on in previous roles maybe you see some desired qualifications are those unique skills that you have if you don't

10:05 have them do you have anything com comparable how can you bridge that gap between the two those answers should be focused on showing why you are uniquely capable of taking on that role and once you've made that direct connection it's time for the final one which is connecting to the company itself now connecting to a company might seem a bit idealistic but go beyond the cliche with me right no company's perfect and I'm not asking you to find your endall Beall company that you're going to retire with but each company can tell you why they're different from their competitors that's their competitive Advantage right and that's something that they probably Pride themselves on this is also a question

10:51 that you've answered throughout the process as well why did you take the time to apply with that company versus any of the other position that you saw posted you're going to have to answer that question at some point in the process you will be asked why you're excited to work there in an interview and they're going to be able to tell whether or not you're genuine authenticity is remarkably easy to pick up on in the course of an in-person interview but that builds on the Crux of my talk the resume is only part of the process too many candidates think the second they've gotten an interview they've as good as landed the job but how many times have you heard of a c of a company hiring the very first person that they interviewed not often

11:39 right now once you've been able to establish with the recruiting team or the hiring team with the job and the company congratulations you've put together an applicant presentation you can be proud of now it's time to do it again and again and again and again again but that's the goal of this talk today to give you some advice that you can actually use and a big part of that is being realistic the job market today is more volatile than ever but look at the positive side of this the more roles you apply to the more comfortable you become with the questions you'll be asked with what the needs of the roles

12:24 are and all of those things allow you to come out of your shell and showcase your true authentic self that's the best way to connect and ultimately be hired for a role it may sound like a lot of work and it is one of my favorite sayings is the act of applying and finding a job is a job in and of itself but along the way you have the opportunity to vet out the potential role that you might work in the team you would be working with or the company that you would apply or that you would that would employ you all of that information is to your benefit as well and don't think of starting fresh as wasted effort along the way again you get that chance to feel more comfortable in your own own skin better under

13:11 understand your own story and ultimately find and decide what is that ideal role for you now at the end of the day it's important for me to be candid there is no magical piece of advice that's going to unlock this job search for you in fact the you hopefully you've seen that the idea that there may be is actually what's created a lot of the volatility in the market this idea that that the process is an algorithm to be hacked in reality it's quite the opposite the way to stand out amongst fellow applicants is to focus on the humanity of the process make true human connections along the way doing so will make the entire process significantly more palatable for

13:58 everyone and you'll find yourself better prepared than ever to be hired for and find a job that you'll truly enjoy now you've all been an amazing audience if you want me to look at your resume afterwards please don't hesitate I'm happy to do so and thanks so much for coming to my TED Talk